U.S. family sues over Saudi detention

WASHINGTON, July 29 (UPI) -- The Bush administration is being sued by the family of a man who was detained by the Saudi government for more than a year without being charged.

The family claims the government unlawfully ordered Ahmed Abu Ali, 23, of Falls Church, Va., held for terror-related interrogation.

Abu Ali was arrested while attending the Islamic University of Medina in Saudi Arabia in June 2003. The FBI searched his family's home in Virginia days after his arrest, saying he was linked to a group of Virginia men charged with plotting to assist Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based group dedicated to pushing Indian forces out of the disputed Kashmir region.

However, three other Americans arrested in Saudi Arabia about the same time were extradited to the United States and charged in the plot in July 2003, the New York Times said Thursday.

State Department officials confirmed Abu Ali remained in detention in Saudi Arabia and said consular officials visited him regularly.

Morton Sklar, the family's lawyer and director of the World Organization for Human Rights, said there was no direct precedent for a federal court to order U.S. authorities to release a U.S. citizen held by a foreign government.